What Type of Learner do You Want to be in the Future?
Throughout my life, I have toed the line in between being a strategic and deep learner. During high school I would often aspire to deep learning, but the moment a strenuous exam or paper came up, I would switch over to strategic learning. During this time I would just try to get the best possible grades, even if it meant giving up on actually learning the content. Despite using strategic learning as a crutch throughout the majority of my life, I think that in college I can still redeem myself and become a deep learner. During high school, I was locked into a rigid curriculum, and was told from an early age by the school system that I was expected to always earn the best grades, regardless of the cost to my learning. As a result, early on, I developed strategic learning in order to help me to consistently place on the honor roll. I would cram for every exam and test, and would just try to write what I thought my teachers wanted me to write for my papers, rather than what I actually thought. Despite the many bad habits I picked up throughout my academic career thus far, I believe that I can still redeem myself and become a deep learner in college. Since college is so vastly different from high school, the environment seems to be encouraging more and more towards deep learning in the place of my accustomed strategic learning. In my classes I have been consistently trying to learn the content, rather than falling back on my old bad habits from high school. For example, in Chinese, I study every night in order to try and learn the language, rather than trying to memorize every character and its translation the night before a test. In short, I believe that I will attempt, to the best of my ability, to grow into a deep learner throughout my college career.
Throughout my life, I have toed the line in between being a strategic and deep learner. During high school I would often aspire to deep learning, but the moment a strenuous exam or paper came up, I would switch over to strategic learning. During this time I would just try to get the best possible grades, even if it meant giving up on actually learning the content. Despite using strategic learning as a crutch throughout the majority of my life, I think that in college I can still redeem myself and become a deep learner. During high school, I was locked into a rigid curriculum, and was told from an early age by the school system that I was expected to always earn the best grades, regardless of the cost to my learning. As a result, early on, I developed strategic learning in order to help me to consistently place on the honor roll. I would cram for every exam and test, and would just try to write what I thought my teachers wanted me to write for my papers, rather than what I actually thought. Despite the many bad habits I picked up throughout my academic career thus far, I believe that I can still redeem myself and become a deep learner in college. Since college is so vastly different from high school, the environment seems to be encouraging more and more towards deep learning in the place of my accustomed strategic learning. In my classes I have been consistently trying to learn the content, rather than falling back on my old bad habits from high school. For example, in Chinese, I study every night in order to try and learn the language, rather than trying to memorize every character and its translation the night before a test. In short, I believe that I will attempt, to the best of my ability, to grow into a deep learner throughout my college career.